City council holds meeting to address pay gap

By Beatriz Abreu Ferreira

Leicester City Council will be holding a meeting today (MAR19) to approve the Annual Pay Policy Statement and Gender Pay Gap.

In the meeting, all the elected councillors, will also discuss the proposed changes to the Contract Procedure Rules and present the Independent Remuneration Panel Report.

The Pay Policy Statement must cover the Council’s approach to a number of elements of pay for senior staff including salary scales, any performance related pay, bonuses or additional elements of pay, termination payments and approach to pensions. 

Similar information must be included in relation to the wider workforce and the remuneration of the lowest paid employees must be specified.

After approval by Full Council in March each year, the Statement must be published on the Council’s website for public scrutiny. 

The intention is to ensure that Members consider how they pay their senior staff and can justify their policy on senior pay in the light of potential public scrutiny.

The Gender Pay Gap report focus on the differences between the overall average pay of men and women within an organisation. 

At 31 March 2018 the council’s mean gender pay gap was -0.99%, with the mean hourly rate being higher for women (£14.39) than men (£14.25). 

The mean gender pay gap at 31 March 2019 was 0.1% – i.e. the mean hourly rate was slightly higher for men (£14.57) than women (£14.55). The gap as at 2019 has moved closer to zero.

The council’s figures compare very positively against median and mean gender pay gaps of 16.8% and 15.7% respectively for the public sector as a whole – i.e. average pay for men being significantly higher than for women.

At 31 March 2018 the Council was one of only three out of 40 local authorities in the same employee headcount band (5000–19,999) with a zero median pay gap. 

The council’s mean pay gap was the closest to zero – i.e. it had the smallest difference in average pay between men and women.

On the 2018 pay policy City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “It is encouraging that this latest statement continues to reflect our commitment to fair pay and we’re proud to be one of just a few employers to have achieved complete parity in the average pay of our male and female staff.

“This annual statement helps ensure that our pay policy at Leicester City Council are open and transparent and this is vital during a period of long-term and severe cuts that have put council budgets under increasing pressure.”

The meeting’s agenda can be found here.

For further information contact Matthew Reeves on 0116 4546352 (376352) or matthew.reeves@leicester.gov.uk